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76

nowledgeIt of theough the; relatingJniversity

Peace Education

Vol. X, December 1986

AN APOSI''1 of thetv, Thed seven

PEACE:LALJI RAM SHUKLA

Jogy of

Prof. RAMAPATr SHUKLA-Director, Department of Education

Kashi Vidyapith, VARANASI

ransfer3 lity of

Pandit Lalji Ram Shukla was an apostle ofpeace. He was a spiritual saint. e lived hislife with the mota of 'Simple living and highthinking." He practised and preached his fourprinciples-self reliance, free thinking, love &service to others...•throughout his life. He wasessentially a man of peace and health.Professionally he was a teacher in the oldTeachers Training College of Banaras HinduUniversity, Varanasi, India. For some time hetaught in the four institutions of higherlearning situated at Varanasi. He was a tea-cher of out-of-campus also. He mouldedthe personality of many youths in the dire-ction of their mental integration and peace.Young men surrounded him for his nobleguidance, discource and dialogue This waswhy he was called Socrates of Kashi

peaceration9 on

;Jene-sitive

tearchwing19ui- Professor Shukla hailed from Bachavani

Village of Hosangabad District of CentralProvince (now Madhya Pradesh) of India.He was born in 1904. He was educated atHosangabad and Banaras. One of his teacherProfessor Yogesh Chattopadhyay inspired himsaying, "Mr. Shukla, you have the talent of agreat man. You can teach those professorswho teach you:' And he passed all hisexamination in first Division. Dr. Ram Mano-har Lohia and Dr. Kalulal Shrimali were his

rollo-

ling

ent

class-fellows in Inter, and B. A. & M. A.classes respectively. Bhikshu Ja,gdish Kashyapwas also his classmate in M. A.

_Leaving his study he joined non-coopera-tion movement of Mahatma Gandhi' aridworked with Acharya Kripalani. He lived inSabarrnari Ashram of MahatmaGl;indhi forsome time.

He was famous for his teaching. One ofhis disciple professor Atmanand Mishra.Former Dean, Faculty of Education, Saugar .Universitv wrote in his memoir in 1971 about'his teaching, "Pandit Lalji Ram Shukla' wasa very popular teacher. He never caredfor hisdress. but he remained always ready, forteaching and learning". Poet HarivanshralBachchan, who was also a student of Pt.Shukla in B. T. class has written ln hisAutobiography about his teaching. He writes,"The understanding in the subject whichShuklaji taught, was sound, deep and vast."

Prof. Shukla was well known author ofbooks in psychology, education and mentalhealth. He wrote about 30, books and manypapers and articles on educational, psycho-,logical, social, emotional problems, and the-rapyof mental ailments. His spiritual papersw~re published in the weekly of Sanatan

- The author of this paper was a colleague of Pandit Lalji Ram Shukla & he rega.rded him as elder brother.

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Prof. Ramapati Shukla

Dharma of Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya.

Groundwork of Educational Psych-ology was his first book. This book wasliked much by the students of B. T. class,In the preface of this book he has written"The progress 'of; a vnation idepends on, thesystem of education, prevalent in the country,and a good educational system requires theservices of men who are insterested in diffe-rent aspects of the life of the child. Hencethe 9reater the interest that a nation shows inthe study of the behaviour of the child, thebetter would be its progress"

" H Is-booie''fhe 'Pri'rlefpJes \ of Edu'cati'on 'was published -in 1947: He' writes' in thisbook, "There may be peace between twoselves, or they.may be at war. wit!J each other.•••Criminality, mental abnormality. diseaseand all kinds of vice appear as a result of theactivities of the repressed lower self or theimpulsive nature of man", Further he writes,••.v.lt iis the" business of good education topreventthis disinteqratlon, to shape the indi-vidualIn strcha waythat he will neither beat "war with 'himself, nor with the outsidewOJld. : .. "Because in his opinion "In everyrtl~'n 'there is an inner urge for peace andpe,rtection" ,

lnhls book "Mental Integration he hassaid, "Pe~ce and harmony which we areseeking in our social and political life arewanting in our mental life. Till a right philo-sophv oflife guides human affairs neither theindividual nor. society as a whole will behappy." ' '

His book.NaiMansik Chikitsa describesthecass histories of mental, patients treatedby him and explains .the method of treatmentof mental disorders followed by him. Thisbook still helps the mental patients who arein the state of communication.

His last book was on the theme of Spiri.tuaJ Psychology. In this book he writes,"The world is suffering' mainly because ofpride of the ego. Some are proud of theirWealth, some of their lineage, some of theirintellectual attainments & some of their moralqualities, All these things are bonds tohuman soul. But persons who lose the egobecome God-men, This is the ideal of per-fect mental integration",

Due to his deep study and wnnnqs onpsychological, spiritual, social and educatio-nal problems. he came, in contact' with Dr.Bhaqwan. Das, Sarvapali :Qr, Hadhakrishnan,Pandit Ikbal .Naray:an ,Gurtu andother-qreatpersonalities ••

Hindi, Academy of Uttar Pradesh honouredProf. Shukla in 1980 with a casketcontal-niog an inscribed copper-plaque and acheque of Rs. 15,000/- for his writings.

With his tireless efforts he built up KashiManovlqvanshala (Banaras Institute of p$y-chology) at Varanasi in India. He was foun-der. trustee, director and psycho-spiritual.therapist of this institute. He was deeplycommitted to serve deviated youths andrehabilitate mental patients. He was famousfor his spiritual power and ability to treatmental patients through the practice of"Maitribhavana" and "Anapansati". He usedto say, "Our method is spiritualistic, andespecially based on the teachings of Upani-shads, Patanjal Yoga and Lord Buddha. These ..practises have a sound philosophy behind,them. Our system may.be called "Love The-rapy", provided the word 'love' is understoodin the sense in which all the sages and seersof the past have used it. We think that is notby strenqtheriinq the limited ego, but bydissolving in the Infinite consciousness thata man can be truly healthy."

78 An Apostle (

He di.drapur atghter Dr. I

before fOInd twomarried e

His ardual-and

)f Spiri-.e writes,~ause of

of theirof their'ir moralnds tothe egoof per-

ngsoncatlo.,th Dr.hnan,great

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Ishisy-In-Ial>/yndusat:>fdd

78 An Apostle of Peace: Pt. Lalji Ram Shukla

He died on 20 January, 1985 at Chan-drapur at the residence of his youngest dau-ghter Dr. (Smt.) Suman Shukla. Hi'swife diedbefore four years of his death. He left behi-nd two sons' and four daughters.' All .aremarried except one son.

His approach to bring peace in the indivi-dual-and ultimately-in the world was thtough

79

helping mentally ills in becoming themmentally healthy. He treated thousands ofmentally ill people of all parts of India inclu-ding of Nepal, U.K. and Germany etc. Hedid, all thisi tfree of cost till a year before ofhis death at the age of 81 years. Thus he wasan apostle of peace in true sense.

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,,1"The true teacher is not he who has built up an Impressive educational.

organization, nor he who is an instrument of the .politicians •.nor.he, who.is bound to an ideal, a belief or a country. The true teachen.isInwardlj ..rich and therefore-asks nothing for himself; he is not ambitious and seekno power ·in" any -form: he does not 'use teachfng-asa means -ef-acquirfng :position. or· authority, and- therefore he is free from the compulsion otsociety' and the control', of -governmentsv Such~e8ohets-'have"fhe''Pririlltfyhplace in-an enlightened civilization, for true culture is founded, not'on":th;~·engineers and technicians,:.but on the educators,"

- J. Krishnamurti, I

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